Surfactants, such as nonionic surfactants, are used when producing a polymer through suspension polymerization. When a reactor used in the suspension polymerization is washed, there is produced a liquid waste which contains such a high concentration of the surfactant that it can not be discharged untreated. The liquid waste is conventionally placed in a boiler to evaporate water and incinerate the surfactant, or treated with active sludge.
However, the first process is disadvantageous in that it takes a considerable time and costs more because a large quantity of water in the liquid waste must be evaporated. Also, the second process is disadvantageous in that the liquid waste can not be treated in a large quantity in a short time.
It is known that if anionic or cationic water soluble resin is added to a surfactant-containing aqueous solution, a part of the surfactant aggregates. Thus, it is possible to lower a concentration of the surfactant in the liquid waste by adding the water soluble resin to the surfactant-containing liquid waste to trigger the surfactant aggregation.
However, the water soluble resin is not effective enough to trigger satisfactory surfactant aggregation, and a concentration of the surfactant in the liquid waste can not be lowered to a level such that allows the discharge of the liquid waste. Moreover, the aggregated surfactant turns into colloid. As a result, not only does filter isolation becomes difficult, but also the treatment manipulation becomes complicated. Further, the water soluble resin is so expensive that it raises the treatment cost undesirably.
Thus, there has been an increasing need for an inexpensive absorbing agent and method which can readily and satisfactorily collect and remove the surfactant from, for example, a surfactant-containing liquid waste.
In other words, it is therefore a first object of the present invention to provide an inexpensive absorbing agent and method which can readily and satisfactorily collect and remove the surfactant from, for example, a surfactant-containing liquid waste.
The surfactant is generally used as detergents, and an aqueous solution of such detergents is prepared in an available container, such as a bucket and a wash basin.
However, an aqueous solution must be prepared each time the conventional detergents are used, which makes a cleaning or washing job tedious and time-consuming. In short, they are not easy to use. Therefore, there has been a demand for a method of speeding up and simplifying the cleaning or washing job using a carrying material which can carry the surfactant or an aqueous solution of the same instead of preparing an aqueous solution in a container. In other words, there has been an increasing need for a carrying material which can make the surfactant used as a detergent easy to use, that is, what has been sought after is a composition serving as a carrying material that carries (contains) the surfactant.
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 32641/1983 (Tokukaisho No. 58-32641) discloses a method of treating a water absorbent resin composed of a crosslinked polymer with a surfactant to improve the water absorbency. Also, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 122896/1994 (Tokukaihei 6-122896) discloses a method of adding a water soluble crosslinked polyacrylic acid to a surfactant to produce a detergent which can be blended with a large quantity of a moisture-keeping agent. However, these publications neither disclose nor indicate a technical idea of carrying the surfactant by a carrying material to make the surfactant easy to use.
It is therefore a second object of the present invention to provide a carrying material which can make the surfactant used as a detergent easy to use, that is, to provide a composition serving as a carrying material that carries (contains) the surfactant.